By: Brian Mah
When you think of the words "old school," what words come to mind? Some examples include: Retro, vintage, the movie, or some words in between. Old School can also mean veterans of a certain industry.
Patrick Macias, Rikki Simons, Tavisha Wolfgarth-Simons, and Jan Scott-Frazier are veterans of the anime and manga industry. They have contributed greatly to English speaking fans in North America and Asia.
Patrick Macias is a Tokyo based writer for Otaku USA. Otaku USA is a monthly magazine devoted to showcasing some of the best in anime and manga from Japan. His daily blog centers on current popular trends in fashion, anime, manga, and popular culture. He also has entries about several vintage Japanese movies from the 1970's, such as WOLFGUY, staring Shinichi "Sonny" Chiba.
Rikki Simons is a voice actor and writer best known as the voice of the robot GIR in the animated TV series "Invader ZIM," created by Jhonen Vasquez , which aired on Nickelodeon from 2001 to 2006. He is also known for writing science fiction graphic novels such as Ranklechick and His Three Legged Cat and Super Information Hijinks: Reality Check!
Tavisha Wolfgarth-Simons is an independent artist who along with her writer husband, Rikki, created the popular Shutterbox book series released by Tokyopop. In addition to writing comics, Tavisha has also created character designs for Tokyopop and Digital Manga.
Jan Scott-Fraizer has been in the anime industry since the mid 1980's. Jan was one of the first foreign artists to work as an animator in Japan. She has worked on RikiOh 2, Locke the Superman, Shurato, Bubblegum Crash and Tottoi. In 1994, Jan co-founded GENESIS Digital Publishing Company with Izumi Matsumoto (Kimagure Orange Road) where they created Comic ON a CD-ROM manga compendium in which Jan made her manga debut with her original digital graphic novel Transcendence. In 1995 she went to work for Production I.G (Ghost in the Shell, Blood) as the president of Production I.G. USA and a producer and technical director on the Japanese side.
Their past experiences help forge what they are today. Some of the anime and manga series you might know, while others are entirely new. You might want to check them out if you get a chance to travel to Japan.
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